The present invention relates to an openable and closable folding electronic equipment, for example a laptop personal computer (hereinafter called “laptop PC” as an abbreviated expression, appropriately), specifically to a structure of a hinge portion in such a folding electronic equipment.
As is well known, the chassis of the openable and closable folding electronic equipment such as a laptop PC and the like, is constituted by a display section side chassis (hereinafter called a “first chassis”, appropriately) which accommodates the display section having a display screen such as a liquid crystal type display screen and an operation control section side chassis (hereinafter called a “second chassis”, appropriately) which accommodates the operation control section capable of generating a display signal which is to be inputted into the display section. Both chassis are coupled together by a hinge mechanism in a relatively openable and closable manner. In more detail, both the first chassis and the second chassis are usually formed to a substantially rectangle shape in a planar view,
and each one side (a rear side from a user's view in a state where the user uses the electronic equipment) of the first and the second chassis are coupled together via a hinge mechanism, such that both chassis can perform relative opening and closing motions around a hinge axle. It is to be noted that the operation control section includes an input device such as a keyboard, signal processing circuits for generating display signals outputted to the display section based on input operations by the input device, a central processing unit (so-called CPU), and peripheral components thereof.
As the hinge mechanism used for such an openable and closable folding electronic equipment, a hinge mechanism is constituted to support the first chassis of the display section side by a hinge bracket, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2008-47144.
In general, a so-called the escutcheon part which forms a trimming is provided between an outer periphery of the first chassis of the display section side and a glass plate of the display screen. The escutcheon part is usually formed to be flat from the outer periphery of the first chassis to an outer periphery of the display screen.
When using a hinge bracket for supporting the first chassis, as shown by imaginary lines (chain double-dashed lines) in FIG. 8, for example, it is conceivable to arrange a hinge bracket 122 of which the base end side is coupled with a hinge axle on a back surface side of a side edge portion of the escutcheon part 114 of the first chassis 111, and to fix the hinge bracket 122 to a side portion of the first chassis 111 so that a surface of the escutcheon part 114 can face to and abut a face (hereinafter called a “principal surface”, appropriately) of the second chassis on which the input device is arranged and which is parallel to the glass plate of the display screen in the first chassis 111. In this case, from a view point of aiming to make the electronic equipment thinner by reducing the height thereof in a folded state (the fold height) as much as possible, it is quite usual to fix the hinge bracket 122 to a side portion of the first chassis 111 in a state where a side portion (lower side portion in FIG. 8) of the hinge bracket 122 which corresponds to the back surface of the escutcheon part abuts the back surface of the side edge portion of the escutcheon part 114.
However, in the above-mentioned construction (refer to the imaginary lines in FIG. 8), the lower side portion of the hinge bracket 122 abuts the back surface of the side edge portion of the flat escutcheon part 114. Accordingly, in a folded state of the electronic equipment where the first chassis 111 and the second chassis 131 are closed together, the lower side portion of the hinge bracket 122 is positioned above a substantially horizontal upper edge of the one side of the second chassis 131 in parallel to the upper edge (that is, in parallel to the principal surface of the second chassis 131). As the result, the first chassis 111 overlaps the second chassis 131 in a parallel fashion. Therefore, in this case, the fold height H1 of the electronic equipment is determined by adding the height of the first chassis to the height of the second chassis in unchanged form. This is a bottleneck in further reducing the fold height H1 of the electronic equipment and aiming to make the electronic equipment even thinner.
Also, in the above-mentioned construction (refer to the imaginary lines in FIG. 8), when an impact load is applied to the first chassis 111 from the side, the inputted impact load reaches, as it is, to the hinge mechanism via the side surface of the first chassis 111. Therefore, the hinge mechanism including the hinge bracket 122 must be sufficiently firm so that it has sufficient strength to endure such an impact load. This may bring disadvantages in aiming to make the electronic equipment even lighter and thinner.